DPL Social Media

Archive for June 16th, 2008

Michigan based author, Bill Jamerson, will present a music and storytelling program about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at the Davenport Public Library, Main Street location (321 Main Street), on Tuesday, June 24, at 10 AM. The hour-long program includes stories, video, reading excerpts from his novel, Big Shoulders, and playing original songs about the CCC with his guitar. In his talk, Jamerson will discuss his research methods, memories of the CCC boys he has met throughout the years, and some of the projects the CCC did in Iowa. Jamerson has presented his program at CCC reunions around the country. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the CCC. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal works program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in the heart of The Great Depression. During its ten year run from 1933-1942, over three and a half million young men between the ages of 17 and 25 years of age enlisted in this country. They planted billions of trees, fought forest fires, and built state parks, including Backbone State Park, near Dundee, Iowa. The camps not only revitalized the nation’s natural resources but also turned the boys into men by giving them discipline and teaching them work skills. Jamerson’s book, Big Shoulders, is a historical novel that follows a year in the life of a 17 year old youth from Detroit who enlists in the CCC in 1937. The enrollee joins 200 other young men at Camp Raco, a work camp in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, run by reserve army officers. It is a coming-of-age story of an angry teenager who faces the rigors of hard work, learning to cope with a difficult sergeant and facing off with a bully. For more information about this program, call 563-888-3371, or visit Jamerson’s website at: www.billjamerson.com.